1kyle

Glad to see they are finally making a shout about the Bravia but in most of the places I've looked at in the UK these are VERY thin on the ground if they are available at all. LG seem to have this market pretty well under their control followed by Philips (who against all odds seem to be still competing with the Japanes, Koreans etc). I suspect that by the time the BRAVIA is commonly available in the UK the world cup will have been and gone. In a "tight" consumer market HD-TV was the brigt spot on the market. I'm not saying SONY is doomed. It's camcorders are highly regarded and the partnership with ERICCSON has produced a cracking set of world beater mobile phones. Some of the Cinema sound equipmebnt is fine as well. I haven't confused HD-TV with HD-DVD (or at least wasn't my intention). Pushing top end (standard) DVD players is a dead end technology due to the current limitation on playing them on large screens. With standard TV anything over about 26 inches and you really notice the grain / lines (NTSC 525, PAL 625). NTSC shows the lack of lines earlier than PAL which has a slightly higher resolution so can be "enlarged" a little bit more. However PAL (on non LCD screens) suffers from some faint flickering which can be removed by some more expensive TV's using a "frequency doubling trick"). DVD payback limitation these days (assuming Legally manufactured DVD's) is due to the limitations of the current TV standards rather than the DVD playback machine and paying top dollar now for a DVD player is just a 100% total waste of money. The really useful feature I find on old DVD recorders is the one thing SONY never did. By using DVD-RAM you could start watching the beginning of one program AT THE SAME TIME AS RECORDING the end of it, or even another program. Anybody who'se ever used a DVD-RAM recorder will I'm sure have found this really useful. - One up to PANASONIC (MATSHITA) here. Most of the really large screens you see in Bars, Hotel lobbies etc just look like plain rubbish. Improving current level of DVD's is really just a waste of time. You can get brilliant DTS sound out of a cheap Supermarket 25 GBP DVD player ("Buy one, Get One FREE") and the picture quality is more than adequate for current (non HD) TV's. HD TV is a totally different ballgame. Even a 60 inch screen looks awesome. What the Sky digiboxes can do is to RECORD the movie from the satellite on to a Hard disk which can then be played later in HD TV format for you to enjoy on your nice new HD TV. I've no idea of the file format on disc but plugging in Video and Audio leads to one of those video senders will also alow you to record on to a "Conventional" DVD or play on an Ordinary (I.E non HD) TV as well. There doesn't (from playing around with the disk on the digibox) seem to be any DRM stuff on the files. These transfer on to a computer and back again but you can only play the film via the digibox as the internal recording is definitely proprietary and doesn't conform as far as I can see to standard DVD recording formats. I don't think this is actually an issue and certainly won't push BLU-RAY sales. I would suspect that a generalized (possibly open) HARD DISK based solution will be the future rather than a whole dogs dinner of competing (probably incompatable) DVD formats riddled with possibly poor compression and irksome DRM restrictions. Unlike Music where ears (for some people) can put up with quite a considerable loss of fidelity, poor video shows up at a shot and people are much less tolerant of it. Like all future predictions some will go wrong, others will prove correct and in rare cases users will find a use for future technolgy that the designers never even thought of - the most recent case being Mobile phone Texting. Now a major income, but when mobile phones just started coming in to the realm of the ordinary public texting was thought to be just a "gizmo - it'll never take off". However I don't see BLU-RAY as going anywhere - wring device at wrong time. Cheers -K

Glad to hear the RH1 will play MP3's properly. You CAN use SS to play MP3's without transferring to MD. Use Windows explorer to browse to the MP£ track(file) you want to play and then RIGHT Mouse click (assuming the default R.Handed mouse options). Then chose Open With and then browse to OMGJBOX.EXE You track will then start playing using SS. BTW where did you get your RH1 from - was it a "Pre production" unit or is it a "final" to be released version. Cheers -K

Blu Ray looks destined to become the latest in a whole series of Sony White Elephants. From a company that almost invented consumer electronics it looks like it's taking the first steps to joining those other great corporations who've come and gone. We now in the UK have great HD TV (High Definition TV ) and the HD TV screens are just flying off the shelves at the moment (and NOT A SINGLE SONY HD TV in sight). SKY TV now supplies Hard Disc units in their new (HD TV enabled) digiboxes for recording movies on and there's no restriction either. The size of the hard disc is also sufficient for something like 36 hours worth of films AT HD QUALITY. Who in the world is going to pay over 1000 USD for a BLU RAY device (incompatable with previous formats) to play highly DRM'ed films. The new BLU RAY devices are going to be absolutely riddled with DRM to stop recording and copying of movies and the DRM issue is one of the reasons SONY has given as to why the launch of the product is much later than expected. Who also will pay 30 - 50 USD for a movie when you can get the DVD for 20 or wait a little bit and get it in HD format on your nice new SKY digibox. It's strange but the only device SONY currently make which is getting rave reviews is the new RH1 MD recorder (and to think that at one time the MD looked dead in the water). There needs to be changes at the top of the SONY corporation. Any SONY EXECS reading this - PM me and I'll send you a CV. I'm available immediately and will do the job a LOT cheaper than your current crop of CEO's. Any more of these Not wanted or Wrong Product at the wrong time gizmos and soon there won't be a SONY corporation in the future. BTW I've seen (standard) DVD recorders in TESCO in the UK now for as little as 36 GBP. Amazing isn't it. How in the world SONY missed the boat on HD TV I'll never know. It's going to be the hottest selling gizmo soon - especially with the World Cup coming up this Summer. To any of our Friends across the Pond the World Cup really is a WORLD competition - even the USA is taking part this time. That other so called "World Series" Baseball event isn't World at all. There is AFAIK only 1 or 2 CANADIAN clubs in it even assuming they make the play-offs. This summer HD TV will really come into it's own. Once you've seen it looking at ordinary TV isn't the same any more. Cheers -K

The radio remote which came with the NHF800 won't physically FIT into any of the other MD units I have. I hope to try the other remote when I get the RH1. With the RM-MC40ELK on the RH10 I certainly can't get all the functionality that I can get when it's plugged into the NH1. Codec won't display and you can't alter the back light settings from Auto Off. Equalizer doesn't work either with the remote. (RH10 has been "Hacked" so full equaliser works in Native Mode). I haven't tried everything but guessihg I'd say that around 90% of the functionality is available on the RH10. Probably enough. I would like this remote to work with the RH1 as a 5 line display is certainly of use on playback. On Record it's not important. Being able to monitor the recording levels IMO is more important and is easily seen on the RH1. Cheers -K

Been conducting some (largely unscientific) tests comparing play back quality of an RH10 to that of a mobile Phone (Sony Ericcson W900i). I think we've all agreed the current MP3 playback on the MD unit is flawed so I'm using HI-SP on the RH10 and MP3 on the mobile phone. There's still argument as to whether the MP3 problem is due to SS's algorithm or the hardware in the MD. Playing MP3's directly in SS leads me to conclude that the problem is definitely in SS. I can't say whether the problem exists in the hardware as well as you have to use SS for transferring the file. SB won't transfer MP3 files. Note I'm not suggesting one device over the other, just strictly comparing quality for Music being played "on the move". I'm not using the standard supplied software for the phone to rip a CD direct to MP3 as the choices of bit rate is limited and I've no idea what sampling frequencies it uses. I'm coding the MP3 using LAME XP (free) which has a whole slew of choices up to 320 kbs and sampling up to 48K. Drag 'n Drop for MP3 works fine for the phone -- you need to add the tag for the album / artist but is easily done from the software as shown. (The track names are fine as these come from CDDB / FREEDB when you either rip the CD to WAV or use SS to save the ATRAC3 lossless tracks in WAV format). Here's the Album Tag http://www.1kyle.com/lame1.jpg I've got a reasonably fast computer but even on this machine the mp3 file I get (at the same sampling rates and kbs rate) seem to be MUCH better if I rip first to WAV and then convert using something like Lame XP (if I'm on Windows). The direct rip (CD===>MP3) sometimes introduces odd clicks etc. I've tried a few different encoders as well. The problem might be with the CD drives rather than the computer but extracting to WAV first and then converting to MP3 eliminates this problem. Rip CD===>WAV then convert to MP3 as stated seems to be better. ATRAC3 Lossless to WAV first is also OK (saves re-ripping CD). Then from the WAV create your MP3 files. You can delete the WAV files afterwards to conserve space on your disks. Tried these (VBR) 128, 192, 216, 256, 320 @ sampling 48 and 44.1. (The software interestingly recommends using 192 but defaults to 128). Since CD's are sampled at 44.1 I don't think there's any point in using the 48 sampling frequency. 128 - Forget it. Definitely inferior. It seems amazing to me that this tends to be the default bit rate that "music Downloads" seem to be offered at. For MP3 definitely a poor choice even when sampled at 44.1 192 would be FINE for all portable listening. 216 seems a funny bit rate but it's available on LAME XP. 216 - I didn't bother as it seems a "Hybrid" compression that doesn't save much when compared with the better 256. Maybe someone can come up with a use for this bit rate. 256 compares favorably with HI-SP @ 256 when using an RH10 on the move 320 kbs seems identical to all intents and purposes as HI-SP @ 352 although played back through a high end piece of audio gear the MD unit was better. Since a Mobile Phone is hardly classed as a "High Fidelity" unit I would suggest that MP3 rips at 192 sampled at 44.1 will hold up very well against your Hi-SP unit especially when using anything less than stellar headphones. 256 is great for using really nice cans like expensive Senn's, Bose etc but you then have to decide quality vs quantity. 192 will suffice for most people if the original encoding is done properly. 320 probably overkill on a mobile phone especially if you don't install a 2GB card and are not using top end cans. One thing that can't be stressed enough is how BAD cheap headphones really are. That's probably how the download stores get away with such compressed music is that most people are listening on horrible phones where even the highest quality music is made to sound like somthing between a pair of Road Drills and a large Jumbo jet taking off. Cheers -K

Will try and do. I'll get pictures as well. Can't wait to get my hands on it. I feel like a little kid on Xmas Eve waiting for Santa by the fire place. Cheers -K

There's no reason why the "base" functionality of the remote won't work as the standard display feature is common to most models even going back to PRE-Net MD. You probably won't be able to get all the remote functions to work such as keeping the backlight on all the time or switching it off. The equaliser functions also *may* or *may not* work as well. The only remote that really only works in the unit(s) it's designed for it the one I have with the RHF-800 (FM radio). The pins are larger so it won't physically fit into other models than those which have the radio in the remote. Cheers -K

Don't forget you have to add TAX in the US so that makes it about 330 USD. At 1.78 USD / 1 GBP that's 185 GBP. OK Cheaper but not horrendously so and I've no doubt UK prices will drop after the initial intro. The main problem with Europe is the VAT which is 17.5% in the UK (gettable back if you are running a business) to around 21 % or more in France. I will get the 2nd one later - I can only get 1 "Early" but I'm really looking forward to it and also to see what the software differences are (if any) - especially for things like SP upload. Cheers -K

That's where he's getting it from. "Friends/ contact" in the 'biz. My RH1 won't be volume capped either. Cheers -K

If you want high quality gear it's STILL available. However in the digital age lots of gear is still in it's infancy (just look at professional and I mean Professional not those tiny consumer ones Digital cameras). I'm on my 4TH generation (Canon D30==>D60==>1D2==>1Ds2). All these products were state of the art at their introduction but comparing the early D30 with the current 1Ds2 is like comparing an old EastGerman (Pre fall of the Berlin Wall) Trabant with todays top ogf the range Mercedes. It really doesn't make much sense to engineer stuff to last for 50 years if you know it's only going to be fit for a one way trip to the "Tip" in 2 or 3 years. Just try logging on to the Internet with dial up and an old Hayes Modem (2400 Baud) or using a 15 year old computer with a really horrible MONO screen. Once stuff stabilzes out THEN it's worth going upmarket for better quality. For example we are getting faster and faster broadband - but going from 2 or 3M to 8M will make very little difference for the average user out there. Same with mobile phones. The technology of these is changing so fast that often last years models are just chucked into the garbage. Old analog equipment WAS built with quality in mind since the development was mature. There weren't many additions to be made or features to be added so you had to sell the gear based on "Looks", quality etc etc. As the digital market matures you'll see better quality gear emerge. It's not all bad news. A really fast computer with 1 - 2 GB RAM, several hundred GB of disk storage, a Colour printer and LCD screen costs less today than a 128 5 inch Floppy Disk unit by itself did 30 - 35 or so years ago. Cheers -K

Am I the IST in the UK to have one of these. I've been Promised (confirmed as I was on the phone with the Store owner AND the SONY REP) that I can collect it from the Store next Thursday. Will post pics and tryout the software as soon as I collect it. Price (inc taxes etc) 203 GBP (which is I think the price Sony is charging the retailers). Can't wait. BTW Store is Gulltronics in London's Tottenham Court Road if anybody else wants to see if they can get "Early" deliveries. You'll have to go into the store to enquire. Apparently there's been a relatively BIG interest in these (first for MD for ages the store owner said). I've often bought "gizmos" from these people so OK. Cheers -K

No prob --save to PCM and then to save space import the PCM into your library as ATRAC3+ Lossless. OK an extra bit of workflow but it saves space. You can then delete the WAV file. If you need it again ATRAC£ Lossless will save LOSSLESSLY to WAV. There's been a bit of talk on this forum about the uselessness of ATRAC3 lossless. I agree no devices yet play this directly but for storing on a computer it's fine if you are using SONY (ATRAC compatable) gear. Since it can ALWAYS be converted LOSSLESSLY to WAV you can always (albeit in 2 steps) convert it to ANY format you choose. ATRAC3 Lossless can be played directly by SS and if you transfer to Hi-SP ATRAC3 @ 352 you'll have very MINIMAL transcoding and loss. BTW ATRAC3 @ 352 WILL play on any HI-MD unit even though previous versions of SS didn't have these bit rates. Cheers -K

RH1 will upload SP discs. If you can wait till then get an RH1 - then problem solved. Other than that you could play the SP disc in a deck with Optical out and copy to the MD via optical IN. Add track info afterwards using SB (it can edit tracks). You might also find using Line Out and analog recording you won't lose too much just copying (again in real time) to the new Hi-MD unit. If your original SP disc is top quality the small loss in using analog recording and conversion to ATRAC3 + @ 256 will hardly be noticeable - especially for portable music. Cheers -K

Playing MP3 files directly (MP3 encoded with Lame VBR @ 320 kbs) in SS sounds HORRIBLE compared with the Windows Media player playing the same files even though the Windows Media player reports playing at around 302 kbs. The "hideousness" of MP3 on current MD devices might be due to the poor encoding (actually for playing back it would be the DECODING) of SS rather than the device per say. Without actually being able to decrypt the strange MD format it's hard to compare. (Pity no Drag'n drop mode with "Normal" type visible discrete individual files which could be dumped and compared). If it's software then surely a fix could be made for this. I'm really loathe to "Praise" anything in Windows but the Windows Media player handles the files just fine. I've been encoding the files using Lame V 3.93.1. I know there are more recent versions but this version is as stable as a rock and works just fine and I'm sure it's not MY encoding that has got screwed up. BTW to play your own MP3 files directly with SS use Windows explorer to point to your file and then right mouse click. Chose Open With and browse for OMGJBOX.EXE in the SS folder on your PC. Cheers -K

If you have a Kenwood radio you can get a cable adapter which allows you to to play your music device through the radio. Search for my post on this topic as I've posted this info at least twice. The cable can be used for ANY DAP including 'Pods or even Cassette walkmans if you still have one. Cheers -K

I can't seem to find the UMD thread so please move. (I'm playing with IE7 beta which seems to have a whole slew of problems of it's own). However Hollywood have pulled the plug on UMD so it really will DIE as the other thread implied. Anyway no sorrow over that and R.I.P to a real piece of badly thought out rubbish. Here's the news item. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/85761/hollywoo...media-disc.html Sometimes the registration (free) banner comes up so if you don't want to register here's a copy of the article Hollywood studios pull plug on Sony Universal Media Disc 10:31AM It looks as though the Universal Media Disc format on the PlayStation Portable is a dead duck as far as a media for playing movies. It is yet another blow to Sony which has seen a number of setbacks in the past year, leaving some to wonder if the electronics giant can recover its former glory. Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment have called a halt to releasing any more movies on the UMD format. Other studios such as 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Buena Vista Home Entertainment are considering drastically cutting back their support for the format. A Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment exec told the Hollywood Reporter. 'Releasing titles on UMD is the exception rather than the rule. No one's even breaking even on them.' Likewise, an executive at Universal Studios Home Entertainment was heard to say `It's awful. Sales are near zilch. It's another Sony bomb, like Blu-Ray.' The problem is that while the PlayStation Portable is selling in large amounts, the buyers just seem to want to use it as a handheld games console and are not interested in using it as a way of watching films. And US consumers certainly do not want to be paying more than $20 for a movie to watch it only on a small screen. Sony has been criticised for not equipping the PSP with an S-video jack to allow it to play back on a standard television. It is now rumoured that the PSP division is talking to Sony Studios about the ramifications if such an accessory were offered for the device. The last thing Sony needs right now is yet another blow to its credibility as it gears up for the crucial release of the Blu-Ray high definition DVD format later this year. The mood at Sony headquarters will not have been improved by the news that rival Toshiba has launched its first HD-DVD play in Japan. The HD-XA1 costs 110,000 yen, or $940 - somewhat more than the $800 price point promised for the US release due later this month. The news that the major Hollywood Studios are cutting back their commitment to UMD follows the announcement of the delay in the PlayStation 3 launch until November, following disagreement in the Blu-Ray Consortium over the specification of the DRM. Last year, Sony also faced a public relations disaster when it was revealed that its CD copy protection relied on rootkit code, more commonly associated with virus and spyware writers. Steve Malone Cheers -K

Here's the current Sony list price for the UK. GBP 249. Before our US cousins die of horror remember UK prices are shown INCLUSIVE of tax whereas in the US you have to add on various state / federal / city taxes which make the US advertised prices seem much cheaper than they really are. Now List prices are invariably higher than "Street Prices" so I'd expect this to be available for under 200 GBP (probably GBP 199.99 in "shop speak") - especially in "haggle areas" like London's Tottenham Court Road". Availability in May. Can't wait to get my grubby mits on it. 1 GBP = 1.44 EUR / 1.79 USD (rates vary but this is about the mean at the moment). Here's the article (gives quite a positive feel for MD as well). http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/85445/sony-mak...d-walkmans.html Cheers -H

Why not use the Internet. These days you can source stuff world wide and reputable companies are quite good. (Goods are likely to be cheaper as well). I live in the UK and never have had probs importing stuff from the USA, Japan, Hong Kong etc. I don't like "Scambay" but YMMV. However getting stuff from a reputable supplier is fine and delivery by Fedex / Ups / DHL etc is no problem as these companies operate world wide. I'd certainly get the RH1 if I was just buying now. Cheers -K

Pity you converted ALREADY from a Lossy format (Mp3 @ 192). Be interesting to see what you thought of the Atrac 105 converted from an original WAV. The problem with converting from a lossy format is that you are only going to add to artifacts etc present in the original conversion and that original conversion might not have used the optimum settings in converting from an original file as well. The only serious way comparing different formats is to start from an uncompressed source and then try all the various formats. At 352 you'll be able to fit (usually) 1 CD on a 74 Min disk. For the larger CD's (some 77 min ones - usually these are Classical Music discs) they should fit on to a 80 Min Disk. Hi-SP however @ 256 will probably fit 2 CD's on to a 74 or 80 min disc. The compression algorithm is better (slightly) (than the old SP @ 292) and in Hi-SP mode you can write more data on the discs. If you are converting from a decent source (original CD's) then for portable listening you probably would be hard pushed to tell any difference between HI-SP (256) ant 352 kbs. Played into a decent sound system is another matter. Please note that LOUD (300 watts for example on your sound system) doesn't always equate to QUALITY. A good sound system has to be able to handle the "Transients" cleanly. Playing a piece of music at full volume will "clip" and distort horribly the loud passages and you'll miss the contrasts between the soft and loud pieces). The Vinyl Vs CD argument has been raging for years. It's a bit like Digital Vs Film photography. There's some merit in the Vinyl argument - same in B&W film photography. B&W has an infinite number of grey scales between pure black and pure white. It's hard to represent this number via any decent digital representation. Most digital cameras still only use 12 bits. Only a top notch professional Phase 1 digital back (costing over 22,000 USD) uses 16 or 20 bits and this is a long way short of Infinite. For colour it doesn't matter but you'll notice a digital B&W picture compared with a good film one quite easily. A good Vinyl deck is a bit like B&W film vs digital. However the quality of decent CD's do produce almost indistinguishable sound from the original. Other problems with Vinyl mask the maximum fidelity you can get out of that medium. (Same with film. Whilst the resolution is arguably better than digital "Grain" will make its appearance long before you can use the full potential of film's resolution). Cheers -K

I think you'll find some of the newer dvd players will play DVD MP3's. Certainly some of the newer portables. I agree with you about DRM'less atrac. However I'd still advise to BACKUP your computer including the music regularly WHATEVER PROGRAM you use. Always test your backup program especially if you haven't used it before. You won't be very happy if your Backup appears to run fine but fails when you try and restore. The only reason for using SS backup is you can just run it and leave it. Some other backup programs need you to select files etc. BTW DRM Less ATRAC only applies to NON PURCHASED downloadable music. Online music stores are one of my Nr 1 ALL time pet HATES. DRM'ed compressed music at a highy price than a CD. The site in Russia - allofmp3 or some name like that is of "questionable legal status" so I'm not recommending using that one even though it appears to offer higher quality formats than those other miserable excuses (Itunes etc) which have the gall to call themseleves "Stores". Cheers -K

Not quite true. For Booting a computer you need to execute an instruction at a specific point in memory (the BIOS will do this). When you switch on the computer the CMOS is read (this holds the BIOS settings such as the BOOT device sequence etc). Depending on the CMOS settings the computer will then start "The BOOTSTRAP". This instruction normally tells the computer to read one sector of a disk into memory at location XXXX amd then start executing the instruction at XXXX which then loads the rest of the OS ("Bootstrapping"). However the bootstrap loader (that's the bit of code read into memory by the first Disk sector read) must have the ability to read the rest of the OS into memory which requires that the BIOS has the USB drivers built in or the driver must be loaded by the first sector read. Most USB bootable motherboards will be OK with Windows XP. Linux will probably need the drivers loaded at boot time but as it usually makes an image in RAM before the kernel probes the hardware the USB drivers will have to be available after the first sector read of the USB device by the BIOS so the "Bootstrap loader" which is loading the OS can access the device. If you specify NO emulation, and Nr of Sectors 4 when creating your bootable USB the OS should load. You need to extract a valid boot sector for the OS you are loading. You can do this with ISOBUSTER or another program which can read a RAW ISO. (Extract it from a bootable CD or DVD). BTW Using a MD to load an OS won't be the fastest system on the planet. A USB stick works just fine with some motherboards. I'm experimenting booting from a Mobile Phone with an embedded memory stick. Cheers -K Cheers -K

Hi Greg I'll try some in later this week. The Gas people are digging up the street and need to get in to temporarily turn off the Gas, so I'll be stuck at home. I'm looking for some decent DVD Ripping software (DVD====> Mpeg4) at the appropriate frame rates. A 2GB memory stick should be enough to get a (not too long) movie on it and from samples I've downloaded from th net the quality is hugely better than some of the DIVX rips I've seen. Cheers -K

Drag'ndrop works fine. OK you need to create the structure as I explained above (that's only because the stupid phone software hasn't been written to accept all the file formats the phone is capable of playing. For MP3 > 192 or MP4 (AAC / AAC+) structure the directory as shown http://www.1kyle.com/phone.jpg The actual Music files (*.MP4) are just dragged to the relevant folder from your computer. No Propietary data bases needed. Doesn't matter where on your computer the music comes from (or even from different Cards devices etc.) Just use Windows explorer. Now if SB could handle more formats and bit rates. Cheers -K

I'll try it later. I'm still messing around with MP4 formats. The screen is surprisngly good for a mobile phone. Don't confuse the screen (wide screen format) with the normal tiny one's usually associated with mobile phones. I was on a train yesterday and got snippets of the Chelsea V West Ham game on the phone. Surprisingly viewable as well. Had quite a few interested viewers (mainly Chelsea supporters) too. The screeen quality is awesome - so if you are on a train , in an airport lounge etc you really can view these, and the sound quality is great too. I agree you wouldn't want to watch these for hours on end but for 1 - 2 hours with a glass of Beer or two (or three) it's quite viewable. Of course the W900i has a penalty - it's slightly larger than typical phones but not unduly so and considering what it can do is not a high price to pay for the added functionality. The Drag and Drop (especially for MP4 / AAC files) is absolutely great. 8GB cards will be available later too. I'd certainly have a look at these before dismissing them as "unviewable". Incidently if you don't like Vodafone (who seem to have the monopoly in the UK of supplying these) you can get them unlocked. I prefer using my own bookmarks for WAP than Vodafone Live. BTW to get music from SS to the phone convert the PCM (WAV) to the format you want. The phone will also handle WAV files but I'm not sure at what sampling rate. Don't forget when transferring large files use a Card reader these are usually much faster than using the phone's USB connection. (Could be the phone uses USB 1.1. Can't find any specs for this). Cheers -K

Wrong device at the wrong time. HD TV (High Definition TV) is here now in the which once you've've seen it on a decent screen absolutely BLOWS AWAY current DVD technology. The new HD TV recorders - embedded in the new DIGIBOXES (from SKY TV in the UK) come equipped with large Hard Disks as well for recording movies. Hard disk devices IMO are better these days as they support ALL FORMATS (data on a Hard disk is just a file system). Hard Disks don't suffer Format compatabilities either. You can use them on ANY computer platform. (OK I know there are different file systems but all you need to do is just create a file system on the appropriate OS - this process is more commonly known as "Formatting a Disk"). No probs with recording DVD's in ANY format. All you need is the appropriate software, and Disks are much faster than DVD's anyway. Remember you can get 1 TB ( that's 1000GB) disks for around 250 USD now. A single Blank Blue ray 20GB DVD will cost around 20 - 30 USD making hard disks a much cheaper option to say nothing of the cost of the player which will have compatability problems with previous and competing formats. And in any case try finding a Blu-Ray DVD WRITER at the moment to say nothing of paying 1000 USD for just a player. What on Earth would you watch on a Blue-Ray player - a 60 USD movie which you can probably get for 5 USD in current formats. Remember most people don't have really large TV's at home so unless you've got someting like a 42 inch screen HD TV won't offer the average viewer much. At sizes below 28 inch I doubt whether people would really see much difference. IMO HD TV starts becoming noticeably good at sizes around 32 inch and better and you have to have a proper HD TV. I think this is one area of technology where I'm just going to sit it out until all the format wars have been played out and there is a SINGLE UNIFIED standard. I'm quite happy to record DVD's on the new SKY Digibox. You can copy these to any other disk as well. It's just a DATA FILE as far as the OS is concerned. The only possible use for Blu Ray as far as I can see is for larger Optical archiving storage media - but here again there may well be better formats in the future. Cheers -K